It looks like Vokle wants to become the video chat forum for the masses. Originally envisioned as a political platform, Vokle makes it so easy to broadcast and receive real-time streaming commentary that it just might make public debate over the Internet a reality. The platform has also been embraced and roundly praised by Arrianna Huffington … but I like it anyway.
In Navigating the Ethical Pitfalls of Online Networking, Attorney Christine E. Mayle shares some considerations for social-networking lawyers. The piece is well written and concise, although I couldn’t help noticing that the list sounds awfully similar to the no-no’s we were warned about in connection with lawyer blogging; which were similar to the warnings about websites; which resembled the warnings concerning the use of e-mail by lawyers; which were only a hair different from the points brought up concerning Yellow Pages ads. In short, here we go again (stop me if you’re heard this one before):
Social IRM Engagement Chart
Social IRM (noun) (so-shal eye-ar-em): the discipline of managing relationships between influencers (ie: bloggers) and brands (ie: LexisNexis, Westlaw, etc.) by offering real value with the goal of exciting, maintaining, and harnessing positive word of mouth. Used mostly by marketers and forward-thinking professionals.
Prism Legal’s Ron Friendman liveblogged (a/k/a real-time blogged) Richard Susskind’s discussion of the future of the profession at ILTA 2009. Here are the Top 10 disruptive legal technologies on the list:
Document Assembly. Has already changed markets. Providing document assembly online allows for economies of scale. Charges and hours don’t have to relate, making this technology “disruptive.
Always on Connectivity. Lawyers can, and are expected to, be on call 24/7. Deal with it.
Electronic Legal Marketplace. Your value in the a frictionless marketplace. Clients can select legal services in the electronic marketplace and even choose to go with non-lawyer alternatives.
E-Learning. Law schools have long been falling down on the job. The Internet can revive learning with realistic simulations.
Online Legal Guidance. Interactive advice systems in the “latent legal market” (see Suskind, The Future of Lawyers). Sounds like self-guided document automation.
Legal Open-Sourcing. A la Wikipedia. Crowd-sourcing communities of interested individuals can result in better answers than throwing the problem to a single individual. Consumers more likely to talk to friend with similar problems than a lawyer.
Closed Legal Communities. See Legal Onramp. Clients and In House Counsel can pool legal information and check a common knowledge-base before consulting pricey outside counsel.
Workflow and Project Management. High volume, low value work can be made into off-the-rack solutions; making certain lawyers into de facto project managers. Project management requires significant training, but lawyers aren’t getting any. This is a disruptive trend because it highlights the fact that as efficiency increases, billable hours decrease.
Embedded Legal Knowledge. In the future legal knowledge will be built into compliance systems making the contributions of highly-trained counsel less necessary except for unusual assignments.
Online Dispute Resolution. Dispute resolution as a service. Services like CyberSettle versus time spent in Court or in the arbitration system.
A simple illustration of what trends will hit this year. Pay attention!
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